Anime reviews for the cautious and curious

Main menu

Post navigation

Shangri-la Review

Story:
Kuniko has lived her entire life in a jungle. But it wasn’t always that way. Before her generation, that jungle used to filled from corner to corner by the modern cities of Japan. But when earth had enough pollution and fought back, nature took over. Now the world’s nations depend on how much or, more importantly, how little carbon they produce to survive economically. And for some nations, only a select few live in luxury. Angry at the mistreatment of the socially poor she grows up with, Kuniko faces the oppressive government of Atlas, intent on re-imagining the system into one that allows for the safety and care of all.

Violence:
By far the worst part of this series is the violence level, which is about as high as in Trinity Blood. People are shot multiple times, stabbed to death, their bones crushed from the outside or, well, eaten. And like the above mentioned series, this show comes extremely close to breaking the YA section because of this. If you are antsy about violence, or even on the fence with it, you might want to skip over this show.

Language:
There’s defiantly a few nasty ones in here, but nothing too strange. Mainly sh-t, d-mn, and the b-words. Military types. They just can’t be original.

Nudity:
Just like in Trinity Blood, some cheap shot fanservice is in this one too. Mainly the main villainess who likes to be half uncovered, wear skimpily dresses or not be covered at all randomly. No details, but it’s pretty annoying. However, unlike that series, this one uses a great deal of innuendo as well. All of it coming from one character. Many are pretty difficult to follow if you don’t know the proper key words, even so, that too is annoying. Also this same character is a transvestite. If these kinds of things bother you, you might need to join the violence haters and sit this one out.

Theology/Mythology:
There really isn’t too much of this until the very end. Without spoiling too much, the end contains such things as Japanese gods of old and ghosts and whatnot. Nothing of a converting nature. Japan’s main religion does not seek converts. Ever. But it’s heavy on Japanese mythology. If those things make you uncomfortable, well, you get the idea at this point…

Personal Impression:
Considering how much questionable stuff is in this show, you might wonder why I stuck it out. Well, it didn’t quite cross that line. Though it certainly tried to do so. Many times. Much like Trinity Blood, this show really pushes on the limits of my YA rating. It pushes it so far, in fact, that if you’re shaky on any of the above mentioned points, don’t read any further, dude. Just let it go.
But if you think you can deal with that, there’s an amazing story to be told in this show. Of course, the economy part is a large plot element, so if you have next to no knowledge of how economies work, you’ll probably be lost a great deal of the time (think C – Control here). Even so, the characters are very deep for a dystopian show. Everyone has an agenda of their own to some extent and that, wrapped up in a complex plot, makes for some good science fiction action. Although, it must be admitted that the end seemed to grasp for a few straws. For those familiar with Japanese folklore, it’ll be an interesting, though odd, twist. For those that aren’t, well, you’ll probably just rage quit.
Overall, though the art, music and story is well done, this show is defiantly not for everyone. In any way. For those wishing to give it a shot, feel free. There’s a lot to be said of the characters and many of the social issues brought up (what good dystopian doesn’t ask those hard questions?). But it does push the YA tag very, very far. You’ve been well warned.

Like this:

Related

About inrosegalaxy

Raised on everything from Moby Dick to the Star Wars X-Wing books from a young age, it came as no surprise to anyone who knew me that I’d become a literature graduate and avid writer. But my love of a good story wasn’t restricted to the written word in my early years. Star Trek, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and badly dubbed Godzilla flicks helped shape my love of science fiction on screen as well.
I wrote my first story while in the second grade. It was a horrifying tale about murdering a fairy-eating dog via a slice of pizza (in my defense, my only exposure to pizza was in the cafeteria and I swear you could legitimately kill someone with those things). I was a special snowflake.
Today I write science fiction, fairy tales, Gothic epistolaries, fantasy and anything else that pops into my bizarre and twisted mind. I write new articles for my blog every Tuesday and Thursday. And if you happen to fancy Japanese animation, I also run an anime review blog, RRAR, which updates every Monday.